The heating of furnace chambers with burners, which are designed for flameless oxidation of fuel within the furnace chamber, is known in the art. Burners which heat a furnace chamber by means of flameless oxidation have significant advantages for many applications over burners that form flames. The heat generation can be distributed over a large area of the furnace chamber and the formation of nitrogen oxides is low.
Flameless oxidation, as well as a furnace suitable for this process, disclosed in EP 0463218 B1. The furnace includes a furnace chamber with walls in which one or more burners are arranged. Fuel and air are introduced into the furnace chamber by means of the burners and exhaust gas is discharged. The burners generate a fuel/air mixture which is injected through an axial fuel outlet into the furnace chamber as a jet in perpendicular relation to the furnace wall.
These burners are particularly suitable for heating chamber furnaces in which the space in front of the burner is free of objects which could be struck by the fuel/air mixture. However, there is often the desire to also heat such furnace chambers with burners operating without flames even when objects are located in front of the burner or if the burners cannot be operated with an axial fuel outlet for other reasons. In that case, so-called flat-flame burners, ceiling jet burners, or side-wall burners often are used. However, since these burners do not operate with flameless oxidation the known disadvantages of such burners, such as the formation of local, very hot zones and a high production of nitrogen oxides must be taken into account.